Fidel Castro calls Obama U.N. speech "gibberish"

HAVANA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel
Castro accused U.S. President Barack Obama of speaking
"gibberish" in his recent address to the United Nations and
called NATO's actions in Libya a "monstrous crime" on Monday in
his first opinion column since early July.

Castro, 85, has been mostly out of sight the past few
months, which combined with the absence of his usual steady
flow of columns, had prompted rumors his health was worsening.

He wrote he was involved in work that occupied all his time
and therefore he had not been writing what he calls his
"reflections." But he said he wanted to comment on the U.N.
General Assembly in New York and in particular Obama's speech
last week.

The reflection was published on Cuban government website
www.cubadebate.cu.

Castro was his vintage self in his latest piece, blasting
Obama and the United States, his ideological foes and favorite
rhetorical targets, for what he views as bellicose and
hypocritical behavior. He called Obama the "yankee president."

Castro, who led Cuba for 49 years before health and age
forced him to cede power to younger brother Raul Castro in
2008, quoted extensively from Obama's General Assembly speech,
inserting paragraphs of his opinions of the U.S. leader's
words.

"In spite of the shameful monopoly of the mass information
media and the fascist methods of the United States and its
allies to confuse and deceive world opinion, the resistance of
the people grows, and that can be appreciated in the debates
being produced in the United Nations," he wrote.

Castro called into question many points in Obama's speech,
accusing him of misrepresenting the situations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, U.S. policy on Israel and Palestine and the
uprisings this year in several Arab nations.

"Who understands this gibberish of the President of the
United States in front of the General Assembly?" he asked.

He said the General Assembly presented political
difficulties for many countries trying to decide the positions
they should take on numerous issues.

"For example, what position to adopt about the genocide of
NATO in Libya?" Castro wrote. "Does anyone wish it recorded
that under their direction, the government of their country
supported the monstrous crimes by the United States and its
NATO allies?"

Castro did not describe the project that had taken him away
from his column writing, but his allies President Hugo Chavez
of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia said recently he was
working on something to do with agriculture.

He promised another column on the U.N. General Assembly
would be forthcoming.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)